Wide bards and Timer Warping

I am just getting into edge gluing to make wide boards, say around 18
inches. Each time that I try the finished board seems to warp across the
board. I am positive that the board was flat in the clamp and stayed there
for a few days.
Should I use several narrow boards or a couple of wider boards? Is the end
grain at the end of the boards important?
Thanks for your help.

You can find lots of information on this by looking for things like
"edge gluing" in a search engine.
There are lots of others out there with more experience than me, but one
way to minimize this is to use narrow boards and arrange them so that
the curve of the end grain alternates up and down. If the boards warp,
you'll get a slightly wavy top rather than a totally cupped one.
Chris

You may not be having the edges/board "flat"in the clamps you are using.
You may try this,While boards are clamped run a framing square or anything
else that you know is straight+true accross the boards to check if infact
they are flat.
Thats one possibility.
use clamps on both sides and alternate them
Let us know how it works out.

Start with properly dry materials. Got a jointer? Planer? (or their
cordless equivalent?) Rough your stock out to just over it's final
dimensions, and allow your stock to acclimate to it's final environment
for a couple of weeks. Make sure that air can flow around all sides
while you're waiting for this to happen. Then do a final dimensioning,
removing material as evenly as possible from all sides. After glue-up,
again allow the panel to rest where the air can freely get to all
sides, not lying flat on a benchtop, for example. Sealing/finishing all
sides and edges will help your efforts, too. Tom

there
What is important is the proper selection of your material, all the way from
the type, to how it was originally cut from the log, to the moisture content
when you use it.
And there is probably no better way to get a handle on that than:
(Amazon.com product link shortened)
You will do no better in your search for understanding the reasons for your
problem(s) with wood, guaranteed.

Also consider that your jointer is never at a perfect 90 degrees. The
way to correct for this is to alternate the cuts. Rather than edge join
all of the boards with the down side against the fence, alternate; down
side against, down side away. Also if you use a lot of pressure on your
clamps, they will bow a bit. This is why you alternate clamps, one up,
one down.
robo hippy

Why not just fix the tool? <G>
My DJ-20 rarely finds 90 degrees all by itself. Three seconds with the
6" combo square in my pocket and a twist on one lever makes it all
perfect. It's so easy that I no longer bother to fine tune the 90
degree stop.
The same can be said for all blades and miter gauges. 10 seconds of
checking can save a bunch of rework and wasted material.
Barry

Agreed ... but I still alternate cuts on the jointer when preparing stock
for panel glue-ups. It is a simple, effective way to put a proven
geometrical principle to work in my favor.
... and I generally need all the help I can get.

'Pends on the stock....I've been doing a lot of maple recently and it is
really nasty about tearout...then one has the little flecky spots on the
edges that don't _quite_ mesh. W/ something like oak or walnut, one
would undoubtedly never notice.

If you guys are having that much trouble with tearout while edge jointing,
and as someone mentioned earlier, you guys need to "fix the tool" and hone
those blades.
... and rough cut your stock _long_ while you're at it.
<gd&r>

BTDT...gnarly grain on a jointer _will_ have some minor tearout -- going
against the grain simply makes it worse...

Do that, too....won't help through the middle if a little chipout
occurs...
As noted before, on straight-grained or easy stock, it isn't much of an
issue. On other stock it can be a pita. I'd rather have the jointer
fence set perpendicularly and joint w/ the grain as much as possible.
Among other things it just sounds better besides to hear the clean swish
as opposed to the little breaky-splintery noises...

I gotta admit being surprised at you guys having such resistance to this
simple procedure.
In actuality, the 'alternating faces against the jointer fence' method does
not, in any way, preclude you from doing that at all.
The solution to what you have been perceiving as a problem with the method
is to simply flip, end for end, the offending board in your panel layout
during jointing, while maintaining the original intended face-to-fence
orientation.
You really should give it a try sometime ... in panel glue-ups, attention to
all these little details generally add up to a much flatter results.

Gee, your're really serious here???? :)
I thought we was funnin' w/ "reasons why my preference is the one and
only way..." :)
But, from a practical standpoint, if the fence is truly perpendicular,
the benefit from the swap procedure is precisely _none_. If the fence
isn't perpendicular but only close, then it's another variable to add to
a potential problem during glue up of requiring keeping track of which
face was jointed in the correct direction to make the error cancel.
Plus, I still contend that w/ stock that is prone to tearout (the maple
I'm currently using mostly) it makes a lot more sense to joint it in the
way preferential to grain direction.

Actually, I was making what turned out to a miserable attempt at "funnin'"
... I was trying to throw Professer Bozarth's best "stating the obvious"
tone back at you with a tongue in cheek version of "if tearout is all you're
worried about, turn the goddamn board around!!" ... but I got distracted and
...well, left out the pertinent bits.
What the hell ... that's what you get when these womenfolk keep kissing you
on the cheek while reaching for your wallet.
Have a good Thanksgiving, Duane ... hope that freeze don't get you too bad.

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